CHAPTER VIII 



UDDER COLIBACILLOSIS 



Infectious Organism 



The infectious organism is the colon bacillus or bacillus 

 coli. The name coli is taken from its original habitat, the 

 contents of the colon of man. 



The mastitis bacillus described by Kitt as the bacillus 

 phlegmasiae uberis may be briefly reviewed as the colon 

 bacillus. Kitt's bacillus should have only one flagellum 

 while the genuine colon bacillus should have from four 

 to six flagella. We have so little practical knowledge 

 concerning the flagella of the bacilli that we should venture 

 to distinguish new types only upon the difference in their 

 number. 



Characteristics. — The colon bacillus is a short thick 

 rod with rounded ends. It is easily stained with the com- 

 mon anilin dyes, but is not stained after Gram's method. 

 The growth in the common culture media is vigorous, 

 especially surface growths. It does not liquefy gelatin. 

 It coagulates milk with gas production. It splits sugars, 

 as glucose, maltose, lactose, and also often saccharose with 

 the production of gas and acid. 



Occurrence. — The colon bacillus, as is the case with 

 the other organisms, is of uniform geographical distri- 

 bution and occurs everywhere in Sweden. It is a common 

 intestinal parasite and therefore occurs in manure and in 

 the dirt and dust of cow stables. 



Morphology. — The size of the colon bacillus varies 

 considerably. There are large and small colon bacilli. The 

 longer vary between one and four microns ; only in excep- 

 tional cases it is longer, at which times it may reach eight 

 microns. Its thickness varies between 0.5 to 1.5 microns. 



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